Wheeler sentenced to prison

POLSON - Convicted burglar Cote Wheeler was sentenced to prison on four different charges last Wednesday, more than a year after he committed a crime spree throughout three different counties.

Wheeler, 21, received a 10-year prison sentence with eight years suspended on the first charge in Judge C.B. McNeil's District Courtroom. The subsequent three were all deferred for three years, to run consecutively to one another. Wheeler has already been convicted and sentenced for crimes in Missoula County, and his prison time will run concurrently with that conviction.

According to court documents, the defendant's activity began on Nov. 13, 2008, when he and three other men allegedly entered Wilson's Foods in Arlee through an addition to the building that was under construction. The foursome allegedly made off with two cases of beer, dropping a third in the parking lot.

A police affidavit states that Wheeler later admitted in a Jan. 16, 2009, interview with Lake County Sheriff's Detective Mike Gehl that he, Jaret Freeman, Jonathan Morton and Colton Wheeler burglarized the store.

On Nov. 19, 2008, Wheeler and Morton allegedly entered Arlee's Pigasus Bar through a window and took two knives, $500 in cash and 32 bottles of liquor - worth approximately $800. In the Jan. 16, 2009, interrogation, Cote allegedly told investigators that Colton Wheeler and Freeman stayed in the truck as lookouts while he and Morton made three trips into the bar. Colton also reportedly worked at the Pigasus in 2008, and told Cote where the money was stashed.

After making off with the loot, the group reportedly went on to Missoula to "party for the night," celebrating their assumed successful heist. But it would be this incident that eventually led to the burglars' capture.

According to court documents, the bar owners called investigators later to report that they had received a tip from a bartender at the Stockman's Bar, who had witnessed a suspicious vehicle driving around the Arlee neighborhood the night of the burglary. The bartender told Sheriff's Deputy Pat O'Connor that the cruising vehicle was a "jacked up" green Dodge pickup that they did not recognize as a local vehicle.

Then on Nov. 22, 2008, the Lake County Sheriff's Dispatch received an anonymous tip that Cote Wheeler had burglarized the tavern. Upon receiving that information, Detective Gehl checked the vehicle description with Wheeler's truck and found a match. This would eventually lead to the Lake County Sheriff's Office retaining a district court search warrant in December to place a GPS device on Wheeler's truck, a move that led to Wheeler and Morton's arrest in Missoula County on Jan. 15, 2009.

Lake County investigators notified Missoula authorities that the tracked vehicle was displaying a suspicious pattern of movement in neighborhoods and Wheeler and Morton were caught allegedly attempting to commit a home burglary outside of Missoula with two loaded handguns, some jewelry and two knives, believed to have been stolen from a Missoula Police officer's home they burglarized earlier that day.

According to then-Lake County Sheriff's Lt. Mike Sargeant, the two men were at one time believed to be connected to 22 local break-ins, three break-ins in Missoula County with two attempted burglaries, and four burglaries in Flathead County including the arson of the Echo Lake Store in Bigfork.

Wheeler was convicted for two of those local home break-ins, a burglary at a Crow Dam residence around Dec. 2, 2008, followed by another at a West Post Creek home on Dec. 13, 2008.

According to court documents, a man found what appeared to be a stolen lockbox near the Pablo overpass and brought it in to Ronan Police Chief Dan Wadsworth on Dec. 2, 2008. A homeowner who had recently been robbed identified his lockbox that had been stolen from this residence and forced open. The victim said that $800 had been taken from the box along with an additional $600 from the home and a revolver.

In the Jan. 16 detective's interrogation, Wheeler allegedly admitted to burglarizing the residence with Dallas Andrews, taking the money and the gun - adding that the revolver was at his sister's residence in Bigfork. When investigators searched for the gun they found nothing, but the next day Wheeler's mother called it in.

Investigators then traced a phone call that allegedly included Cote asking his sister to get rid of the weapon. Then on Dec. 13 Cote, Colton Wheeler, and Jonathan Morton allegedly burglarized another home, entering through the garage to steal three guns, a camera, jewelry and cash. Detective Gehl investigated the burglary, noting tire tracks in the driveway that matched the tread from Wheeler's truck, prompting the use of the search warrant-approved GPS monitoring method.

After being arrested in mid-January 2009, Wheeler and Morton both admitted to burglarizing the home. Among the guns was a Remington 1100 shotgun, which was discovered at a Kalispell pawn shop just days after the burglary date.